IN THE words of the state's highest ranking officer, Bryson Anderson was not only an ''excellent officer'' but also a ''damn good bloke''.

The NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, on Thursday night revealed he had worked closely with Inspector Anderson about a decade ago at Special Crime and Internal Affairs.

The 45-year-old father of three spent 26 years in the force. His father and brother at one time were also serving officers.

''He was a fine officer then,'' Mr Scipione said, recounting their time together. ''His tenacity, his courage, his wisdom but also his strength, stood him in very good stead to go much, much further than he has.

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''He was nothing short of a role model to those officers that come after him.''

When he was a constable in the late 1990s, Inspector Anderson was involved in busting a high-profile car rebirthing racket operating throughout Sydney.

He went on to become a detective and spent time with the elite at the NSW State Crime Command.

More recently he featured on ABC TV's Australian Story as one of two officers who assisted Catherine Smith, a wife who was tortured and tormented by her husband for more than 30 years.

Ms Smith had developed a ''very big mistrust'' of the NSW Police after she was tried (and later acquitted) for attempting to murder her abusive husband.

It was only after the involvement of Inspector Anderson that Ms Smith started to regain her trust. He later delivered a letter of apology to her for the attempted murder charge.

''It was a step that we could take to try and restore Catherine's faith in the New South Wales Police,'' Inspector Anderson told Australian Story.

Most recently, Inspector Anderson was based at Hawkesbury where he lived with his family. Last year he was involved in organising a ceremony on Police Remembrance Day for Constable William Green, who was murdered on duty aged 25 in August 1826. Constable Green was killed trying to stop a man attacking a female servant.

Until yesterday Constable Green's death more than 180 years ago was the only case of an officer killed on duty in the Hawkesbury region.